001Good afternoon, everyone. Hope everyone is well today. Good. Yeah. Are people still showing up? All right. Well, happy Tuesday, everyone. Hopefully everyone is doing well today. We're going to go ahead and get started. Uh we got a light for us, a light agenda, but a great agenda for today. Um we will have a a guest once again this year from financial compliance. Then we'll kind of open it up for uh Q&A. And uh if there's questions out there general for me so hopefully everyone is enjoying this weird February weather it's warm for some places it's cool some places but it is it is glad to see you glad to be back hopefully it is going well with you we've all had some different things going on in life and life changes and life celebrations and
002so but we are here we are ready and good to see you thank you for joining me today. Hopefully we will go ahead and get rolling. And so as you know always starts with our definition how do we look at our GT students and we are looking for those children and we are serving those children who perform at or shows the potential for performing at remarkably high levels of achievement when compared to others at the same age experience or environment. And also looking at for them who exhibit performance high performance capability in the intellectual creative or artistic areas also have that leadership capacity but then they also excel in their academic fields and so Pacific certain academic fields so those are the kids we're looking for those are the kids we're serving and hopefully we're
003doing a great job to meet our state goal of making sure that those students who are participating in your GT services that have been designed specifically with them tailored towards your district have been able to demonstrate self-directed learning thinking research and communication by the development of innovative products and or performances so really what are they doing does it reflect their individuality creativity and or advanced in compared to other students of the same age, experience, or environment. And that our high school graduates have participated in services that are they have produced products of professional quality. Really thinking about how are you doing that? How are you getting there? And what does that look like? And Today, we always have our friends for the Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented. I saw Kristen join us. Kristen,
004you got some updates for us today? Hi Monica. Hi everyone. Um, yeah, welcome to this kind of weird February so far. Um, I hope that you're doing well wherever uh, wherever you are in your office, out on a campus, in between places, at a region service center, wherever you find yourself. Um, I'm the deputy director of TGT or the Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented. Um, and we're really the professional home for all of you who have a vested interest in the outcomes of gifted and talented students, in your staff that serve them, in your own abilities to lead and develop your programs and services and identification and all the things that come along with that. Um, so we're here and we provide professional learning both in person through conferences, through various virtual opportunities.
005Um, if you're a TGT member, we offer lots of opportunities to connect whether it be on our online platform or through various meetups. If you are a TGT member, hopefully you opened a recent email that came out from us announcing the launch of our new membership categories. This has been over a year long process to really rethink and take a look at how we can better serve all of you who sit in different seats. You have different needs perhaps than the classroom teacher who's serving their cluster of gifted kids. We know region service folks have different needs than some of you. Our folks are partners in higher ed. Um there's all different roles that all of us play in ultimately helping serve gifted and talented students. And so what we've done is create better categories
006and better benefit offerings for each of you depending on what you know what seat you're in and how you serve students. And so we're really excited about this launch. I'll put in the chat some information here in a minute but you can see on our website our new member categories and some of the different offerings there. So we're we're really thrilled to be able to serve all of you better again no matter which seat you're sitting in. You'll see some additional communications come out in coming weeks about what those benefits mean for you and how those will impact you coming coming soon. The biggest thing on our radar aside from this new membership launch is our leadership conference coming up just in less than two months. We'll be in Round Rock at the Kalahari Resort
007March 22nd through 24th. And if you haven't gotten the opportunity to attend the leadership conference, this is really the place where once a year you get to join with the people who are in your same role from across the state who are all dealing with the same things who are looking at problems from multiple different angles or multiple perspectives if you will. And so trying to see how you know each of you can move the needle forward better serve your staff better serve um And um so we have uh a host of uh breakout sessions. I'll put those in the the link to those in the chat here in just a second, too. Um I'm really excited about our programming on Tuesday. Um Tuesday is going to be all together. Uh so we'll be it's
008for half a day and we'll be together uh engaging in the same learning uh throughout Tuesday. It's going to be part leadership development um coordinated for your role. Um we're going to hear from uh Luke Hurst again. He's going to going to going to give a next layer on what to do with that data from the taper report, which is really exciting. Um and then also um we don't have the information yet up on the website, but we'll have it up soon. Um we um are really honored to host um a man by the name of Dave Shaw. And uh he's the founder and CEO um of a really brilliant marketing uh really more than that, but a marketing agency uh based out of here in Austin. Um they've done lots of work uh with
009really meaningful organizations such as the LBJ Library and others. Um and uh his uh group has been partnering with TGT2 on talking about and doing some research around how we can best help you um tell your story, how to advocate for you yourself uh and the needs of your department and GT kids across your district. Um and what is it that's going to what are what are the the things you can put in your toolbox to help you be a better and more effective communicator um whether you're talking to your boss, your boss's boss, a teacher in a classroom, um someone else, a partner in the community, um someone who says the GT kids will be just fine. How do you talk to them in an uh you know, effective and compelling way? Um so
010we're really thrilled to be um welcoming Dave. And he's also very versed and has watched Luke's last webinar he did a couple weeks ago about the taper data because he wants to understand what it is you all have to work with when you're trying to tell your story. So, we're we're excited. Tuesday's going to be Monday and Tuesday are going to be awesome. Tuesday's just going to be a little different format, but we think you're going to get a lot out of it. I'll put links in the chat here in just a second to all those things. If you're a new coordinator and you are not you haven't engaged with TGT in any way, I would love to hear from you. Again, I'll put my information in the chat too, but I'd I'd love if
011you'd reach out to me. I'd love to exchange emails with you and send you a little bit of information. So, if you're you're new to the state, new to your role, I'd love to be able to connect with you, too. So, that's what's going on. You're going to hear probably by the next GT Tuesday cuz I think there's one more I think before spring break. At the next GT Tuesday, I'll be able to have everything laid out for you for our our new gifted plus series. That's if you've been to the in-person conference before, it's no longer going to be an in-person conference, but it's going to be a virtual series, not a virtual conference, but a virtual series over a few weeks that centers on very specific topics like gifted and autism spectrum disorder,
012gifted and emerging bilingual, and some other topics. And so, I'll have more information about those things probably in in a couple weeks when I see you all again. So, that's all I've got, Monica. Thank you. I'll put some things here in the chat in just a second. Well, thank you. Thank you for the great information. Hopefully, we'll get to other than GT Tuesday, hope to see all of you at leadership conference. I will be there. So, you know, answer all questions. All right, so today, my friends, we have from financial compliance talking about our GT allotment program intent intent code 21, Ms. Denise Salinas. She is here from financial compliance and she has a wealth of information to share. So, I'm going to stop sharing. Let's [gasps] her start sharing and if you have questions,
013you can drop them in the chat and then we'll get them answered. So, welcome, Denise. Thank you. Let's see if I can get this get this share. I think so. All right, we see you. We see it. Sorry about You see it? We can see it. Yes. So, good afternoon, everyone. My name is Denise Salinas and I'm one of the auditors in the financial compliance division at TEA. Today, I'm here to provide a clear overview of the GT allotment program. So, let's walk through what it is, how it works, and what we need to keep in mind for compliance. The agenda for today consists of a brief overview of the GT allotment program, a couple of FAQs we often receive, and let you know where you can find additional resources and support. Let's begin with
014a broad overview of the GT allotment program and its purpose. The GT allotment is established by our state legislators. It can be used to assess students and provide GT services to meet the needs of those students beyond the basic education program. The chart you see comes from the FASRG, which shows what costs are allowable and what are not. For example, like your AP courses that are des- uh designed as part of your GT program, those costs can be coded to pick 21. However, your AP courses that are not designated as part of the GT program, those need to be coded to pick 11. It's crucial to remember GT allotment funds are strictly supplemental. Supplemental means to add to. Supplanting means to replace. All of the supplemental allotment program funds should only be for costs in
015addition to the basic educational allotment, which is your pick 11. Um before coding costs to any allotment program, you have to ask yourself some questions. Basically, you're asking, is this something that the school has to provide anyway? If yes, then you are running the risk of supplanting. So, you should not code the cost to any of the supplemental allotment programs. Uh GT funds must supplement, not supplant, required services. If a service would occur without GT funds, it's likely supplanting and not allowable. Districts must spend 100% of your GT allotment each year, and only direct costs count towards this requirement. As far as what your direct costs are, I include the following in the next slide. Here you will see the different functions that are considered your direct costs, and also which functions are considered your
016indirect costs. As far as fund codes, we look at your uh general fund, which is your 199, and 420 if you're a charter. ESSER funds 266, 281, 282, and 283 are included in the 3-year average used for spending used for the spending requirement test. Um even though ESSER ESSER expired in September of 2024, these funds may still be reflected in the calculation, depending on uh your LEA's fiscal year end. Um so, uh these are the only ESSER funds that are included in the calculation. Remember, only direct costs are included in the testing calculation, so be sure your coding aligns with the correct object and fund codes to ensure compliance. So, this is um what our testing calculation looks like to see if the school is uh meeting spending requirements. We look at your summary of
017finance, we look at the allotment revenues, and we look at your expenditures. And we do a calculation to see what percentage is being spent. In this example for this school's GT program, they received about 55,000 but only spent 27,000. That means they used half of the money even though the rule says that they must spend 100% or all of it. So, they didn't meet the requirement. Therefore, it's important to regularly review your summary of finance reports to track spending and avoid surprises at year-end. An example of the summary of finances on the right-hand side of the screen. As you can see, they were projecting a GT allotment of 46,000 and at year-end they got 55,000. So, why did that allotment increase? For deeper analysis, look at the Tier 1 detail report that is on the
018right-hand side of the screen. It shows ADAA detail for each allotment program. So, for the GT program, you can see here that they were projecting 108 students, but they were actually serving 128 GT students, not 108. That's an additional 20 students. That is where the increase comes from. So, to monitor this, look at your school's 6-week attendance reports. This will help you stay on top of it. TEA uses a 3-year rolling average to test compliance. Each year, the oldest year drops off and the newest is added. Last year, we looked at FY22, 23, and 24. This year, we dropped off FY22 and added FY25. The calculation compares summary of finance and PEIMS expenditures to determine the percentage of funds spent. The chart on the left shows an example of this calculation. If an LEA is
019not meeting spending requirements, these are the expectations. Number one, that the school will increase spending to make up for the shortfall. Number two, that the school will enhance its monitoring processes over the allotment programs. Number three, that the school will verify coding for the pick codes, verify coding for student attendance and teachers. Uh to help prevent non-compliance, you can monitor the summary finance reports and expenditures on a regular basis, preferably monthly, so you can make adjustments before year end. Um another uh tool that you can use is on the TASBO website. Uh basically um what what this tool does, it you just have to apply simply enter your six-digit county district number and the tool will automatically fill in your previous year's data. Then add your current estimates to instantly check if you're meeting state
020spending requirements or not. Um So this slideshow here, this is a the results of compliance testing for fiscal years '22, '23, and '24. So here we see that there was only 153 LEAs not meeting spending requirements for GT. That's pretty good cuz that's 153 out of uh about 2,000 LEAs here in Texas, so that's pretty good. Um so this highlights the importance of ongoing monitoring and accurate coding. Here are some FAQs that our team has often received. Common questions include teacher salary allocation, extra duty pay, new compliance rules, and allowable expenditures. FAQ number one. Must 100% of the students in a class be identified as GT for the teacher salary to be an eligible GT expense or is there a threshold? For example, an AP course has both GT and non-GT students, but only 90%
021of the class are GT students. How should the salary be handled? There is not a threshold. That portion of the of the teacher salary can be coded to pick 21 and the other portion should be coded to pick 11. FAQ number two. If a GT if a GT teacher receives extra duty pay for GT-related responsibilities or training, can that compensation and the proportional benefits such as TRS and insurance be charged to pick 21? The answer is extra duty pay for teachers with additional GT responsibilities is allowable. It's also appropriate to proportionally allocate benefits like TRS and insurance to pick 21. Uh FAQ number three, has the GT funding formula changed? Uh no, the formula is still the same. Uh we do the um the point oh point 07 times your basic allotment times your eligible
022ADA. Uh with the 100 million statewide cap and with all funds being spent annually and coded under pick 21. FAQ number four, can costs for GT summer camps where only GT students are allowed to participate be coded to pick 21? The answer is yes. Expenditures for summer camps, summer school, field trips, and similar activities that are exclusively uh design- designated for students identified as gifted and talented may be coded to pick 21. However, if these activities are not specifically designated for GT students, the associated costs should be coded to other funds. Additional resources, um so this is your state allotment program's web page. This is your go-to resource for information on all allotment programs. You'll find statutes, FAQs, training materials, and support contacts. Uh and FAQs are updated regularly, so please be sure to check
023often to to get the latest information. Um there's also other great resources are TEA's GT division website, the FASRAG, and the code section for GT. Uh for questions about the GT allotment program, please feel free to email us. This concludes my presentation, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. >> Before we move on, are there any questions? Any wonderings? It's time to ask about that field trip. Is that allowable? I have a quick question. Yes. Um we know that that a lot of us spend more than the the 5% ADA. Um and I remember when we lost the allotment and then we got it back, there was um language requi- requiring sustaining the the amount that we were spending. Is that still in place? So, in other words, if a
024district is looking at cutting programming in different areas, if the amount that was coded to pick 21 this year were to drastically be reduced next year, but still be over the 5% ADA threshold, would would that trigger anything? I don't know if I'm explaining that well. I Could you This I'm Peggy Watts. I'm part of financial compliance. I am not familiar with that 5% ADA requirement. Um we just look at the you know, your allotment. So, let me let me see if I can clarify. So, if we get I'm just going to use dummy numbers cuz it'll make the math easier. Um if we get $1,000 for our GT allotment. Okay. >> But we've been spending $5,000 and we cut that $5,000 down to let's say $3,000, but we're still above the 1,000 that we
025get in the allotment, is that going to trigger anything anywhere? Is that going to send up red flags because we're not spending as much as we have in the past? I think I see what you're saying. Okay, you get a your allotment's for a thousand dollars for your GT. But but you actually spend more than the fund [laughter] I I hear you. No that no that's fine. It won't trigger anything. That that's okay. So it have to go below the thousand dollars to trigger For us to say something yeah yeah. Absolutely. In fact with our compliance we we look at a three year average anyway. So like Michelle so like if you know if you were over in years one and two and maybe there was a dip in year three it wouldn't trigger anything.
026You know as long as it still averaged out that you you spent at least a hundred percent you'd be you'd be in good shape. Okay. All right, thank you. Mhm. >> [clears throat] >> Good question. Right. So someone could ask if we can repeat if you could repeat what you said on the slide first slide about AP courses. Sure can. Let's see. About the AP courses you said? Yes. Um So the question was must a hundred percent of the students in the class be identified as GT for the teacher's salary to be an eligible GT expense? Or is there a threshold? Um for example an AP course has both GT and non-GT students but only ninety percent of the class are GT students. How should the salary be handled? Um there's not a threshold, and
027the portion of the teacher salary can be coded to pick 21, and the other portion should be coded to pick 11. Is this Does that help? Let me check the chat. I think so. I think they caught it. Yes, they did. Thank you very much. You're very welcome. All right. Any other questions? And Monica, it looks like we have a question about um how to code students who are furloughed. >> Furloughed. Um I guess not coming from a school district. I'm not familiar with what furloughed means. Okay, and that's coming from the uh student attendance handbook. Uh and I'll drop that link in a in a minute. Um so for uh students who are on furlough, so what you would do once they are uh once you have determined the placement for a furloughed, you
028will remove uh So basically, coding for a GT kid, I want to say is zero or one, depending on the Now, let me also caveat with I know everyone has a little bit different system, so your system may or or your accounting purposes may have a little different numbering. So they may have a specific code for for furloughed students. But basically, it's a zero or one. So either they're being served or they're not. Because they're not being served on a furlough, you remove their coding. That's what we mean by remove their coding. So they get a zero for they're not being served at this time. So for that semester, that 6 weeks, however long they're on this furlough, they will not receive coding as a student being served. Once they the furlough is lifted or
029removed, then they come back onto your roster as being a student being served. That's how your funding is accounted for. It's for those students who are being who are identified and served in programs. So, really making sure that your students are being in a classroom with your properly trained people getting the services that they are have been designed for them. I hope that made that that that was clear. But, that is coming from our attendance student attendance accounting handbook. Uh and I will drop that link now. Uh for some of you, if you were at uh gifted ed 2025 and I did the state plan uh update there and uh I can share I'll share a couple of those slides in a minute. Um that was where uh I kind of highlighted some of these
030uh links here of what cuz that is making sure as you saw with uh when Denise was presenting making sure that your numbers are highly accounted for because it does reflect your your income uh of how much you are uh allotted in your programs because of your accuracy of your numbers. So, working with your PEIMS coordinators is really to beneficial to make sure that you are on the right track with your numbers. I hope that made that clear. Any other questions? So, what? Huh? Just lost my Let me give me a chat back. All right. Uh so, if you have any questions or want to email finance, they'll typically include me on the response. Ours So, here is the information for our finance compliance where you can email them if you have questions. Also, the
031student attendance handbook. Um if you have questions there. And thank you, Denise. And thank you, Peggy, for joining us today with to support and highlight what is going on with our GT allotment. All right. So, thank you. All right. I'm going to open the field up for a few minutes to questions or if you have any at this time. Um and then I can go back to any of uh You know, I probably have a slide for it somewhere. I can pull it for you. So, any questions general to the field? Or wonderings. Or questions to the field cuz you know y'all good for that one, too. No questions at the moment. I'm going to stop share for a minute and I'm going to change to something right here. Okay. And this one. Okay. Okay,
032I just wanted to share because of since you had the question on Pima County. Uh also, where you can find the link, I dropped that in the chat while while a just a minute ago. Uh but it does address your coding identified and served for low and your exited students. And so and they do give uh examples for you uh to uh on those. So that is in the student attendance handbook for those who are looking for that. Uh also remember our snapshot dates. Uh actually one is coming up soon. So really make sure that your data is clean. Uh what you look uh your students are properly in those classrooms being served. They're identified. They are coded correctly. Uh because that is the next time this month at the end of the month. Uh
033if you always here, make sure your kindergartens are are in in place by March 1st because that is a snapshot window time. And that is all also affecting your allotment and the budgeting for upcoming year uh when they are looking at those numbers. Uh your June date is your opportunity to clean up anything. But it's always in my uh opinion with some with finance, it's always best to be as close to correct uh the first time around when they do it than trying to clean up and come back around. Monica. Yes. If the snapshot is in February and the deadline is March 1st and we code on March 1st, that will not be included in the snapshot for February, correct? Uh let me see what date cuz they they they they they their dates kind
034of fluctuate um when they start looking at it and they have an opportunity for clean up, but let me make sure what day and uh I will follow up with what actual date uh the February snapshot is. So, I'll get that for you. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. All right. Other questions? So, I'll make sure I'll and I'll also make sure I will give you those published dates that you can have that. All right. Um One other announcement before I go back. Uh as you know, the State Board did make uh approve of these changes to uh Texas Administrative Code Chapter 89.1 on our student identification. It went into effect uh January 20 6 on sales the date. Um once it went through uh the Texas Register and it has been posted, so it is
035in effect currently at this time. Uh also, the State Board met last week. Uh uh for discussion is we're always doing There there is an opportunity for four-year rule review. We are in that four-year rule review uh because we have actually been doing some updates into ours, there are no recommended changes to our rules at this time for a gifted and talented so that is a it was discussion next what is it April is there next meeting that will be the first reading I highly uh I do not believe there will be any recommendations at that will come forth we as a community and stakeholders have none at this time uh so pretty much rule chapter 89 will be quiet for gifted and talented on this rule review and that that rule that's and if
036there are no one has other questions any shout outs happenings I know I have I see some ESCs on there with us anyone else got something that's going on they want to talk about so yes uh yes I will put my presentation from tag it I will put both of them on the webs on the what resources page I will do that this week Hey Monica yes it's Ron region 10 in Dallas I just wanted to promote how you doing you doing okay I'm doing all right um at the end of the month February 28th is a Saturday is the Baylor tip GT parent conference and it'll be at Lovejoy high school for anyone that's north Texas um great you know conference full of wonderful presenters all slanted towards the parents of GT kids so
037lots of good sessions there and I'll be giving one so it's a little self promotion there too but yeah please spread the word to any districts north Dallas or anyone that would be willing to travel to Lovejoy. And thank you. Thank you. I plan conference upcoming. Up in Lovejoy. Uh well, what we'll do is make sure that the uh I see your question Blake. Uh we'll make sure that all of the documents, resources, PowerPoints are on the website. So, it's easy and convenient for everyone to get to. Also, remember uh for those who do not know where our website is. Uh I do keep uh basically all of the uh GT uh Tuesdays or house here on our gifted ed resources page from 2019. It's like I've been doing this a moment, y'all. And y'all
038y'all still want to come. Uh so, it will all be there. Uh as you will find. And then also, you can get uh Also, if you want to just watch the videos. Uh they are available on TEA's uh YouTube plat- platform. And you can do find the GT uh playlist. And all of our videos are there. Definitely, if you don't find it on the webpage, the videos are on the playlist. I do try to make sure they get there. Uh And then for those who need to reach out to me, uh here is my contact information. Uh feel free to email me. Uh call is sometimes a little difficult, but email me. I will definitely try to make a book of time with you or uh cuz there's couple people that got times with me
039also. Uh so, we will always I'm always here available for you. Uh want to thank you for the community that you are and how you support each other and how we support uh our GT students out there. So, uh as is, I'm not going to hold you long today. Uh so, I want to say thank you. Our next meeting is uh, February 24th at 10:00 a.m. Uh, and also if you scan the QR code, we are just trying to make sure and evaluate how I am doing and then uh, what can I do to help you and do better in supporting you out there in the field. So, if you have opportunities, if you'll do our QR code, our uh, do our uh, survey and I appreciate you. I thank you. Uh, and if you
040got questions, let me know, but if not, this is it for today. I will see you on the 24th and then after that in April. Yes. All right, goodbye. Have a good one everyone. Enjoy this unseasonable weather out there and uh, have a good one. I am stopping recording.